President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and Commissions Oluwaferanmi Oyedeji Okanlami Appointed to President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition

On March 24, President Biden announced his intent to appoint members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition. The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition is a federal advisory committee that aims to promote healthy, accessible eating and physical activity for all Americans, regardless of background or ability. President Biden issued Executive Order 14048, renewing the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition, which allows for continued promotion of the National Youth Sports Strategy and provides for the work of the Council to include a focus on expanding national awareness of the importance of mental health as it pertains to physical fitness and nutrition.

In 2022, President Biden appointed José Andrés and Elena Delle Donne to serve as CoChairs of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition.

Among the council’s appointees is Deerfield Academy’s Oluwaferanmi Oyedeji Okanlami.

From the White House press release: Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami (aka “Dr. O”) is an assistant professor of family medicine, physical medicine & rehabilitation, and urology at Michigan Medicine, an adjunct assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at UCLA, and the director of student accessibility and accommodation services at the University of Michigan, where he oversees Services for Students with Disabilities, two Testing Accommodation Centers, and the Adaptive Sports & Fitness Program. As a former academic All-American student-athlete at Stanford, he is no stranger to the importance of sports, fitness, and nutrition. However, after experiencing a spinal cord injury during his orthopaedic surgery residency at Yale, he began to see life “from the other side of the stethoscope,” realizing how inaccessible our world is for individuals living with disabilities. He now navigates the world as a proud wheelchair user and has a catch phrase “Disabusing Disability” hoping to demonstrate that DISability doesn’t mean INability. He is invited to speak regularly about topics related to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, including, but not limited to, creating a health system that is accessible to and inclusive of both patients and providers with disabilities, and providing reasonable and appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities in higher education. He is passionate about adaptive sports and fitness, striving to provide equitable access to physical fitness and inclusive recreational and competitive sports for all.

Scott McCarty Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Scott McCarty ’76, P’02, P’05, major gifts officer and boys’ varsity soccer coach at Forman, has received the Connecticut High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) Lifetime Achievement Award. McCarty, who has been the prep school representative of the Connecticut Soccer Coaches Association (CSCA) for decades, says he is humbled to be this year’s award recipient.

“It was a big surprise when I was told I was going to get it because there are so many other people in the state of Connecticut who deserve to,” he says. “It means a lot. I’m certainly there to help kids, but I think the biggest thing I’ve done is put the preps on the CSCA’s radar.”